NYT: McConnell Was Right, Obamacare May Be Too Hard to Replace

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was right when he told Republican legislators that their plan to replace Obamacare could prove too difficult to accomplish, according to The New York Times. 

Not long after President Donald Trump's inauguration, McConnell met with GOP colleagues and expressed his belief that repealing the Affordable Care Act was their top priority, but that replacing it would be very hard.

Although the Republican-lead American Health Care Act passed the House of Representatives, its chances in the Senate are rather slim.

If the GOP lose even two votes it could come down to Vice President Mike Pence to cast the deciding vote, and at least three senators disagree with three others on several issues, most prominently the question of whether to rollback of increase of Medicaid expansions that began under Obamacare.

Another issue is the recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, which projected that 23 million more Americans would be uninsured in the next 10 years under the GOP plan, along with drastically increased premiums for the sick and elderly.

"I don't think we want the market to fail," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Finance Committee, told The Times. "We don't want premiums to be so high that people can't afford them."

According to Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, "the opioid issue definitely plays a role," in many legislators' decisions, particularly those from states hit hard by the ongoing crisis.

"A lot of the young population that is being insured under Medicaid has problems with substance abuse or mental illness."

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said that the party has been "talking about this nonstop between ourselves," and that staff experts should have legislative language ready for review by June 5, when the Senate returns from recess.

He added: "It's an appropriate time now to have leadership and committee staff, working with leadership and committee chairmen, sit down and draft a bill, a proposal, for discussion."

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